Salimata

Salimata is 39 years old, married and has no children. She lives with her husband in the Angoulême district of Ségou (the Republic of Mali's fourth administrative region).

Salimata did not attend school for social reasons and thus at an early age started income-generating activities with her mother who sold clothes. After several years' apprenticeship at her mother's side she decided to build up a similar business by herself. She now has ten years' experience in this field and has a large network of customers, made up principally of retailers. Her shop is in the Château market near to the vegetable sellers, and access to the shop is easy. The strength of her sales is due to the quality of her clothing which is imported from Togo, Burkina and Nigeria, and also to her affordable prices.

With a view to increasing her capital so that she can meet customer demand, she turned to Soro Yiriwaso and has had a relationship with the institution for the past 48 months. Having had four group loans and two individual loans, she is now on her third individual loan with which she is planning to buy five bundles of "pagnes wax" (highly decorative and colourful pieces of fabric). She generally gets her supplies from Nigeria.

Salimata sells for cash and on credit to a customer base made up mainly of women, and with this loan she is expecting to make a monthly profit of 100,000FCFA. This will enable her to repay her loan to Soro Yiriwaso and increase her capital.

Additional Information

Important Information

Soro Yiriwaso is a microfinance institution that works primarily in rural and semi-urban areas of Mali to provide underprivileged communities with access to financial services.The organization facilitates access for disadvantaged clients, particularly women, to new resources and services, fostering solidarity and cooperation among its clients. Kiva lenders’ funds will enable Soro Yiriwaso to expand its outreach and target even more underserved Malians involved in business and agriculture.